Congratulations to Jimmy Cocking for getting his motion up, and …

Congratulations to Jimmy Cocking for getting his motion up, and if the IAP2 principles could be made mandatory for NT government decisions as well as Council ones, that would be even better.

However if we are looking for a suitable template for governmental decision making we also to need to consider in every decision:

– what the evidence base is for the need for, and where appropriate the methodology of, the project;
– the pros, cons and relative costs of the options being canvassed (though perhaps this is implied in “the information they need to participate in a meaningful way” mentioned above;

and in our context, in addition to this, for decisions with a significant impact on Aboriginal people it is clearly necessary to consider

– what is the view of the appropriate Aboriginal group with authority to speak on the matter in question.

I find it quite ironic that there should be a view on Council that the ABORIGINAL traditional owners of Alice Springs should not have been specifically consulted about the siting of a national INDIGENOUS art gallery, let alone not been given a seat on the Government’s advisory committee in the first place.

Recent Comments by Alex Hope

Council: yes to protecting NT drinking water from fracking, no to declaring a climate emergencySo who are the “real scientists ” Philby?
Are they the same ones who insist that measles vaccine causes autism?
And was Maggie Thatcher a closet Marxist because she was convinced by the evidence for anthropogenic global warming back in about 1980 (or was it because she had a degree in chemistry from Oxford and was trained to sift the through the evidence? )
Even under another right wing prime minister (Theresa May) the Poms have become very serious about curbing their CO2 emissions.
And what about all the high finance investors who are choosing to invest in renewable energy rather than coal to make electricity, are they all Marxist climate alarmists too?
This is beyond party politics.
I urge you (and our own climate-change denying government) to look beyond the ends of your noses and read it the writing on the wall!

Huge experiment in NT bush will cast light on sun vs dieselAlternative “batteries” include
• Pumped hydro (which can be underground, pumping from a lower to a higher aquifer);
• Stacked concrete blocks, lifted by an electric crane, which is run backwards as a generator when they are lowered again – sounds far fetched but after a successful pilot a full size one is being built in Switzerland;
• Molten salt heated by a solar concentrating plant using focussed mirrors (as per the stalled Port Augusta proposal);
• Compressing fluids (water or air) into depleted oil or gas wells and generating power by releasing them through turbines.
All of these have potential to provide continuity of electricity generation when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, and may prove cheaper and have longer lives than lithium ion batteries.
A year or two ago the idea of solar power export to Adelaide was poo-pooed, but now we have a commercial prospect of sending it to Indonesia. It is time to be a little more visionary.

‘Voter apathy greatest threat to Territory democracy’The figures are disturbing. I understand that the Commonwealth defunded the team who used to go out and enrol people in remote areas, with the above results.
One of the strengths of our democracy, in contrast to that of other countries and the USA in particular, is compulsory voting. Perhaps we need a better system for enforcing it, such as linking electoral registration to the tax file number for example?
After all, casting a ballot still allows for the protest vote, which perhaps should be formally published if it is 80% of “informal” votes. When I have written “a pox on all your houses” across my ballot paper I have intended it as a message to the politicians and the system: That I have not been offered a candidate worthy of my vote, it would be nice to know that protest was being tallied.

Gunner Government ‘droving’ away investmentWhat the pastoralists are forgetting here is that they don’t own the land. They have a lease to run stock on the land.
From where do they get the idea that they should be able to use the land for other purposes without reference to the owner?

Policing is still just a numbers gameWe always hear about recruiting, and increased police numbers.
We never hear about the attrition rate.
How long do police officers stay in the job?
Why do they leave?
Where do they go to? To be police in another jurisdiction, or to do something else?
How much does this revolving door cost us?
What ideas are out there to change this situation?
Does our new commissioner have any new ideas?

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